For Australian patio, pergola, carport and deck builders

Has the bloke who set up your ads ever sold a patio?

I have. Now I rebuild the advertising for patio builders, so more of what comes in is worth quoting and fewer of your hours go on drives that were never going to sell. I sold patios at kitchen tables, in showrooms, and to the crews installing them.

0494 623 173 Or leave your number and I'll ring you ↓
Matt Landgrebe at about 20, standing on a ladder fixing rafters on a timber gazebo roof in the bush.
Me, about 20. Before anyone let me near a showroom.

Check Measure is a one-person consultancy that rebuilds the online advertising of Australian patio, pergola, carport and deck builders. It was started by Matt Landgrebe, who sold patios — in people's homes, in showrooms, and to the guys installing them — before moving into advertising.

Who's asking

I'm a chippy by trade. I started on the tools, and I fell into selling patios almost by accident. Never looked back.

At kitchen tables and in showrooms, on ten-grand jobs and hundred-grand jobs. I sold them to homeowners, and I've sold kits to the trades who install them, so I've had the conversation from both sides of the table.

Along the way I ran my own construction business.

These days I help patio, pergola, carport and deck builders get more work in their own area, and get more out of the enquiries already sitting in their pipeline. Built them first. Then sold them. Now I help those same businesses plug the holes in how their work comes in, from the ad, to the quote, to the follow-up, and dominate their patch.

Matt Landgrebe today, head and shoulders, looking at the camera.

Matt Landgrebe

Check Measure · Dalmeny, NSW South Coast · works with builders Australia-wide

Matt Landgrebe near the end of his apprenticeship, a selfie in a cap and singlet on a building site, with a level and sheets of yellow tongue behind him.
Typical apprentice… spending more time on the phone than the tools.
The finished timber gazebo and deck from the top of the page, with a shingled roof, set among gum trees above a pond.
Same roof as the top of the page, finished. Shingles on, deck laid.

Why I reached out

Something's broken, and I thought you should know.

If you've heard from me, it's because something in your advertising has been broken for a while. Not a matter of taste. A broken thing: an ad running weeks past its own deadline, a form that goes nowhere, a number that rings out.

I'm not telling you that to have a go. I'm telling you because it means nobody's looked. And you're paying for it every day, including today.

If the work's been quiet, that's the first place I'd look.

The quotes that never came back.

How many did you quote last month? How many came back?

There's work sitting there you've already paid for. The ad, the drive out, the hour at the table. It didn't go to the cheap quote. It went nowhere, and nobody's rung to find out why.

And if you're flat out, some of those drives were never going to be a job, whatever you'd quoted.

You've probably had this before.

The bloke who sold it to you was good. That's why you said yes. Then you never spoke to him again. Your account got shipped offshore to a team you'll never meet, in another time zone, on a fraction of what you're paying, working forty other accounts alongside yours. Nobody on it has ever sold a patio.

There's no version of that here. It's one bloke. You only ever talk to me, because there is no one else to talk to.

The cheapest quote.

You know what it's like when someone goes with the cheapest quote. A tight arse pays twice.

Months later you get the call asking if you can come and fix up the other bloke's work.

Advertising's no different, and you already know it.

Go back with the tape first.

You don't order off the quote. You go back with the tape first, because that's where the expensive mistake gets caught, before anything's ordered.

That's the job I do on a builder's advertising: measure what's actually there before anyone spends money building on it. Hence the name.

What I find is rarely a matter of taste. It's an ad sending people to a page that never mentions a price, so every enquiry costs you a drive before you know if they can afford the job.

Enquiries that come to you, and no other builder.

I rebuild the advertising for patio, pergola, carport and deck builders. What that involves depends on what's wrong with yours, so the first thing is always me looking at what you're running now. That part costs nothing, and it doesn't put you under any obligation.

A rough price before you drive out.

Your ad sends people to a page of your own, on your own web address. Before they ask you out to measure up, they answer a few questions about the job and see a ballpark price, worked out from your prices. Someone who was never going to spend that kind of money finds out before you've driven anywhere.

A QR code on your flyers takes the neighbours of a job you've sold to the same page.

Every enquiry in your email and a shared sheet.

When someone enquires, it's in your email the moment it comes in, so you don't have to log into anything to see it. It's also in a Google Sheet I keep for you and share with you: their name, mobile, suburb and what they want built. The enquiries are yours, and you can have a copy of the sheet whenever you ask.

Thirty days, then we go through it together.

It's all live within ten days of us finishing the kickoff. For the first 30 days after that I'm watching the ads and tuning them. Then we sit down and go through the numbers: what came in, what you quoted, and what you won.

0494 623 173 Or leave your number ↓

Two promises I'll put in writing

The work gets done, or you don't pay.

If everything above isn't live within 10 days, you get every cent back. No argument, no forms.

And it keeps getting worked on until it's pulling.

If you're not getting enquiries 30 days after launch, I keep tuning it free until you are — as long as you're answering enquiries within 24 hours and telling me how the quotes went.

What I can't promise

I can't close them for you. I've sat at enough kitchen tables to know that's the part that decides it, and it's yours.

I can't make you ask for the sale, either. A quote that gets emailed and left alone isn't a sale, it's a hope. Kitchen tables taught me the job usually goes to whoever actually asks for it.

I can't make you ring people back. The fastest way to kill a good patio enquiry is to take three days to return the call, and I've watched it happen more times than I can count.

And I won't promise you a number of jobs. I've never seen your close rate. Anyone who promises you a number without seeing it is guessing, and you already know that or you wouldn't have read this far.

Fair questions

How did you get my details, and why did you email me?

Your business is publicly listed and your advertising is publicly visible. I found you the same way a customer would: a Google search for patio, pergola, carport or deck builders in your area, your own website and Google Business Profile, and the public ad libraries where Google and Meta show every ad an advertiser is currently running. No list was bought.

I emailed you because the audit found something specific in your advertising that's costing you money, and it seemed wrong to know that and say nothing. The link in the email is the audit: a video of what I found. Watch it, check it against your own account, and ring me if you want to talk it through. If it's not for you, say so and I'll leave it there.

Are you an agency?

No. Check Measure is one bloke, Matt Landgrebe. You'll only ever talk to me, because there isn't anybody else to talk to. No account managers, no juniors, and no handing your account to someone who has forty others and has never sold a patio.

I take on a handful of builders at a time, because there's only one of me.

What does it cost?

One payment for the build, up front, and no lock-in. I'll give you the number on the call.

What I can tell you now: it's a fixed price agreed before anything starts, the ads, page words and images I make for you are yours once it's paid for, your ad spend goes straight to Google or Facebook and never through me, and the two promises on this page go in writing.

There's also an optional monthly service for after the build. Nothing ongoing starts unless you say yes to it.

Do you work with more than one builder in the same area?

No. While I'm running your ads, I won't run ads for another patio, pergola, carport or deck builder in your patch. Two of you bidding on the same searches just means you both pay more to be there, and you'd be paying more to fight someone I set up.

The patch is where the ads run, not where you'd be willing to drive to, so it's agreed on the call, on a map.

If you're on a founder rate, there's one condition on that, and it's written into the agreement before you sign anything.

How soon would I see enquiries?

Everything's live within ten days of us finishing the kickoff. What comes in after that depends on your patch, your budget and your prices, so I won't guess a number.

What I will do is watch it and tune it for the first 30 days, then sit down with you and go through what came in, what you quoted and what you won. If enquiries aren't coming in by then, that's what the second promise is for.

Have you done this before? Where are your case studies?

I don't have any yet, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Check Measure is new.

What I do have is time on the tools, and time selling patios, pergolas and carports at kitchen tables and in showrooms, to homeowners and, as kits, to the trades who install them; and the audit of your advertising, which you can check line by line against your own account.

If that's not enough to warrant a phone call, fair enough. It's what's true.

Are you actually a builder?

I started on the tools, and I ran my own construction business. I'm not on the tools now and I don't want to be, which is the honest answer to why I do this instead.

What I am is someone who has stood on the slab, sat at the kitchen table and stood in the showroom, and knows what a good patio enquiry looks like from every side of it.

Where are you based, and do you work outside your area?

I'm at Dalmeny on the NSW South Coast, and I work with builders anywhere in Australia. The work is done remotely. The advertising platforms are the same in Perth as they are in Wollongong, and so is the trade: a homeowner in Brisbane wants the same things from a patio builder as one in Adelaide.

The only part that has to happen live is the phone call, and that happens whenever suits you.

What happens if I get in touch?

You get a phone call from me, usually the same day. Not a sequence of emails, not a calendar link, not a discovery anything.

On the call I'll ask what you're running, what it's costing you and what's coming back, and I'll tell you what I found when I looked. If it makes sense to go further, I'll tell you what it costs and what I'd do first. If it doesn't, I'll say so, and you've lost twenty minutes.

Ring me

0494 623 173

Matt Landgrebe. If I'm on another call or with someone, leave a message and I'll ring you back, usually the same day.

Here's the call. I'll ask what you're running and what's coming back from it. I'll tell you what I found when I looked. If it's worth going further, I'll tell you what it costs and what I'd do first. Twenty minutes, and you'll know what's wrong either way.

Or put your number in and I'll ring you.

I'll ring you back, usually the same day. No email list, no follow-up sequence. A phone call.

P.S. If you've skipped to the bottom, here's the short version. I've sold patios, and now I rebuild the ads that bring patio builders their work. If I've sent you a video of what's wrong with yours, it's still running unless someone's fixed it, and you're paying for it every day it runs. Ring me on 0494 623 173. Worst case, you've lost twenty minutes and you know exactly what to fix.